Not just vibration, but occasional access to panels, or the occasional tug on the harness will cause enough mechanical fatigue in a solder joint to cause it to fail. Soldering requires a long list of prerequisite conditions to create a satisfactory joint, and even then, as mentioned you have created a solid strand vice multistrand. That alone is reason enough not to solder. You don't use solid wire on a boat for the same reason.

am glad you brought it up again..Its amazing what Im still learning after 50 years...I knew about cold welding in cable manufacturing and the like but this is the first time I have seen evidence of it being possible with crimp fittings...I must be doing them very wrong as you can pull mine apart without much effort..I have used then for years as what I thought was a slip shot replacement for a good soldering...I vacillate between whatever tool is handy to crimp with... however I cant say that the cheap 4.00 crimpers do any better job then a 4.00 pair of side cutters...but now at least I know why I should go buy a 30.00 crimper...Old dogs do learn new tricks...Thanks to everyone who posted especially the links to thoes sites showing propper crimps...

am glad you brought it up again..Its amazing what Im still learning after 50 years...I knew about cold welding in cable manufacturing and the like but this is the first time I have seen evidence of it being possible with crimp fittings...I must be doing them very wrong as you can pull mine apart without much effort..I have used then for years as what I thought was a slip shot replacement for a good soldering...I vacillate between whatever tool is handy to crimp with... however I cant say that the cheap 4.00 crimpers do any better job then a 4.00 pair of side cutters...but now at least I know why I should go buy a 30.00 crimper...Old dogs do learn new tricks...Thanks to everyone who posted especially the links to thoes sites showing propper crimps...

It may not be the crimpers but the proper size connectors that you need to use.

S/V Scheherazade
-----------------------
I had a dream, I was sailing, I was happy, I was even smiling. Then I looked down and saw that I was on a multi-hull and woke up suddenly in a cold sweat.To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

"but now at least I know why I should go buy a 30.00 crimper..."
More like $50 for the crimper. That would be a ratcheting one with removable/replaceable dies at the business end.

And, you need proper crimps as well. The cheap stuff at the auto store is junk. Real crimps are carefully designed and made on machinery that was not worn out and then sold to someplace in China. They are matched to SAE or AWG wire sizes, and include an inner seamless copper sleeve to grip over the wire. No inner sleeve? Then it is junk, not a proper crimp terminal.

With the right wire, a good crimp, and a good crimping tool, you should be able to wrap the wire around both hands and PULL and not have it come out of either side of the crimp. The wire should break first, if need be.

"but now at least I know why I should go buy a 30.00 crimper..."
More like $50 for the crimper. That would be a ratcheting one with removable/replaceable dies at the business end.

And, you need proper crimps as well. The cheap stuff at the auto store is junk. Real crimps are carefully designed and made on machinery that was not worn out and then sold to someplace in China. They are matched to SAE or AWG wire sizes, and include an inner seamless copper sleeve to grip over the wire. No inner sleeve? Then it is junk, not a proper crimp terminal.

With the right wire, a good crimp, and a good crimping tool, you should be able to wrap the wire around both hands and PULL and not have it come out of either side of the crimp. The wire should break first, if need be.

Yep. I give all my crimps the "tug test". Fail the tug test, and I start all over.

By choosing to post the reply above you agree to the rules you agreed to when joining Sailnet.
Click Here to view those rules.

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the SailNet Community forums, you must first register. Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.Please note: After entering 3 characters a list of Usernames already in use will appear and the list will disappear once a valid Username is entered.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

OR

Log-in

User Name

Password

Remember Me?

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.